Sign-writing



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL V. ALLEN, OF FREEPORT, ILLINOIS.

SIGN-WRITING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 469,033, dated February* 16, V18.92. Application tiled January 22,1891. Serial No. 378.657. (No specimens.)

To all whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL V. ALLEN, a resident of Freeport, in the county of Stephenson and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sign-Writing; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as Will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same. y

My invention relates to improvements in sign-writing, the object being to provide a cheap and simple method whereby persons of ordinary skill may prepare legible and attractive signs adapted for use in advertising,

or as guide-boards at road intersections, orA

for other analogous purposes.

The invention is described and explained in this specification and shown in the accompanying drawings, in Which-- Figures l, 2, and 3 are elevations representing a sign in its different stages of preparation according-to my improved method.

In the preparation of a sign according to my improved method I first cover a suitable practically non-absorbent surface, as C, Fig. l, with a coat of paint C', Fig. 2, of any desired color, and before this coat is dried or hardened I form the letters of the sign by marking through the coatof paint with a suitable instrument and exposing a corresponding-portion of the surface, as illustrated in Fig. 3, beneath. The surface upon which the coat of paint is laid may be prepared in various Ways, a*smooth metallic surface, as of tin, being preferable, though a proper surface may be secured by applying paint to wood or other material and allowing it to dry before applying the coat, Which is to be partly removed in the formation of the letters. It is only necessary that the surface to which the Asaid coat of paint is to be applied shall be such as not to speedily absorb any portion of the paint, it being desirable that as the letters are formed the surface beneath the paint may be completely exposed and freed from paint by the instrument used in forming the letters.

The form and character of the instrument used in tracing the letters may be varied almost indefinitely at the pleasure of the operator, and correspondingly dierent results in lettering may thereby be produced. I have found that very perfect lettering may be done with a stick of rubber of about the consistency of an ordinary eraser, and if the rubber so used be flat it may be so held that the downstrokes and upstrokes of the letters may have a given width, While the lateral stroke is either broader or narrower.

The method thus described is extremely simple and cheap and comes within the skill of almost any person who can Write a fairly legible hand with a pen or pencil. The difficulty of manipulating a brush, which prevents the writing of signs in the usual manner by any person but a skilled painter, is completely obviated by the use of my method, and I have found through tests by many persons having no special skill that very beautiful and attractive signs may be Written by this method with scarcely any preliminary practice. One advantage of this lmethod is that if the prepared surface on which the coat of paint is laid be sufficiently non-absorbent the forming of the letters in the superposed coat may be done after the coat has been applied for some little time. This being the case, if the operator after applying a coat of paint marks through it a Word orwords which for any reason he desires to change, he can brush over the surface at once with a fresh coat of paint and mark the letters through it again, the paint, as before, being completely removed from the portions of the prepared surface on which the letters areformed.

I have found in practice thatthe letters are formed by rubbing away portions of the coat of paint to expose the surface beneath. The paint so removed is not carried away by the instrument with which the letters are formed, but is pushed aside and piled up along the edges of the path of the instrument. The coat of paint along the margins of the letters of the completed sign is thus much heavier than that upon the remainder of the surface of the sign and is therefore extremely durable, and the lettering on signs thus formed is therefore much more prominent than that of signs prepared in the ordinary manner.

Having now described and explained my invention, what I claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The method of sign-writing, consisting IOO in i-rst eoverin g a suitable surface with liquid paint, and, second, forming letters or characters by removing the paint from certainparts of said surface, the paint so removed being deposited at the edges of the letters or ohar. aeters so formed, substantially as shown and l described.

2. A sign made up of letters surrounded by -a ground of paint of a different color, the

paint of said ground being thicker at the edges of said letters than at the remainder of its surface, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

SAMUEL V. ALLEN.

Witnesses:

LEONARD STosKoPE, R. H. WILEs. 

